117th Congress

ERA Legislation introduced in the current session of Congress:

There are two paths available for the Equal Rights Amendment to be ratified to the U.S. Constitution. They center upon the following approaches:

• Three-State Strategy: Bills to remove the time limit on the ERA's ratification process and declare it complete when three-fourths (38) of the states ratify, thereby retaining the existing 35 state ratifications as viable.

• Begin Anew Strategy: Traditional legislation to ratify the ERA by the Constitution's Article V ratification process

Below you will find information about what is currently happening in the United States Congress to advance the ERA toward ratification.

To learn more about the legal viability of both the Three-State Strategy and the Begin Anew Strategy, click HERE.

"Three-State Strategy" Legislation

Current efforts are in support of the United States Congress removing the time limit originally added to the preamble to the Equal Rights Amendment by Congress in 1972 (extended in 1979 to 1982). Legal scholars have stated that if Congress has the legal standing to instate a deadline for a constitutional amendment, they also have the legal standing to remove a deadline. Legislation has been proposed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to officially remove the deadline for the ERA. If passed by both houses, legal scholars state that the ERA could potentially be ratified now that the necessary 38 states have voted to ratify the amendment.

During the 116th Congressional session, potential legislation to remove the deadline was debated on April 30, 2019, the first hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment on Capitol Hill in 36 years. Watch the video from the hearing below.

When the 117th U. S. Congress convened in full for the first time on Thursday, January 21, 2021, bills with bipartisan support were introduced to remove the time limit placed upon the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972. In the U.S. Senate, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced S.J. Res 1, and in the House of Representatives, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) introduced H.J. Res 17, which had 195 co-sponsors on the day it was introduced, demonstrating wide support for the bill.

On Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the U. S. House of Representatives voted to remove the time limit by voting, 222-204, on H.J. Res 17. The bill had bi-partisan support with four Republicans voting “Yea.”

Senate:  Senate Joint Resolution 1 (S.J. Res. 1)

Lead sponsor: Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)
Introduced January 22, 2021. Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Text:

Removing the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights amendment.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That notwithstanding any time limit contained in House Joint Resolution 208, 92nd Congress, as agreed to in the Senate on March 22, 1972, the article of amendment proposed to the States in that joint resolution shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution whenever ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States.

Click HERE to read the bill, and see which U. S. Senators have signed on as a co-sponsors.

House of Representatives:  House Joint Resolution 17 (H.J. Res. 17)

PASSED: 3/17/2021 WITH A VOTE OF 222-204.

Lead sponsor: Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Introduced January 21, 2021. Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Text:

Removing the deadline for the ratification of the equal rights amendment.

That notwithstanding any time limit contained in House Joint Resolution 208, 92d Congress, as agreed to in the Senate on March 22, 1972, the article of amendment proposed to the States in that joint resolution shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the United States Constitution whenever ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States.

Click HERE to read the bill, and see which U. S. Representatives have signed on as a co-sponsors.

“Begin Anew”- Traditional legislation

In the 116th Congress, the following legislation was proposed in support of the “Begin Anew” approach to ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. Some legal scholars have argued that the best way to ensure the ERA will ratify to the U. S. Constitution is to begin the entire process over from the very beginning. This would entail both the U. S. Senate and the U. S. House of Representatives passing the amendment’s legislation and sending it to the states for ratification by each state legislature.

Senate: Senate Joint Resolution 15  (S.J. Res. 15)

Note: The bill number listed above is from 116th Congress: The bill has not yet been formally introduced in the current 117th Congressional session.

Lead sponsor: Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Introduced March 27, 2019; Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Text:

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and women.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

“Article  —

“ Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

“ Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

“ Section 3. This article shall take effect 2 years after the date of ratification.”

Click HERE to read the bill, and see who has signed on as a co-sponsors.

House of Representatives: House Joint Resolution 28  (H.J. Res. 28)

Lead sponsor: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Introduced February 26, 2021. Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Text:

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and women.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

“Article —

“ Section 1. Women shall have equal rights in the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

“ Section 2. Congress and the several States shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

“ Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”.

Note: The wording differs slightly from the Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress in 1972.

In Section 1, the first sentence has been added to include women specifically and equally in the Constitution and to clarify the intent of the amendment to make discrimination on the basis of a person's sex unconstitutional.  It is adapted from the text of Alice Paul's original 1923 Equal Rights Amendment. The second sentence is identical to the wording of S.J. Res. 16 and the 1972 ERA.

In Section 2, the addition of "and the several States" restores wording that was supported by Alice Paul but that was removed before the amendment's passage in 1972. It affirms that enforcement of the constitutional prohibition of sex discrimination is a function of both federal and state levels of government. 

Click HERE to read the bill, and see who has signed on as a co-sponsors.